Motorsports

CADILLAC RETURNS TO LE MANS

by Larry Roberts

March 19, 1999

A couple of years ago, we did a historical piece about Briggs
Cunningham, a noted sports car racer of the day, entering two Cadillac
Model 60s in the 24 Hours of Le Mans endurance race in 1950. Our story
ended with our comment that "...we may never see a (current) Cadillac
Eldorado Touring coupe on the grid of the 24 Hours of Le Mans, although
it would no doubt give a good account of itself." And we were right - at
least about the Eldorado.

But in an interesting program recently implemented by Cadillac to
establish itself as a producer of performance-oriented luxury vehicles,
the company has contracted with Riley & Scott of Indianapolis to build a
Cadillac-powered Prototype-class sports-racer to take the Cadillac name
back to Le Mans in 2000. The powerplant will be a 4.0 liter V8 mounted
to a couple of turbochargers. And although no power output numbers are
given, it's going to have to be in the neighborhood of 800-plus horses
if the car is going to stay up with the heavy hitters at Le Mans.

The engine is reported to be a development of the current 4.6 liter
Cadillac Northstar engine, but don't be surprised if there isn't a lot
of Oldsmobile Aurora in its inner workings. The mechanical and
structural "bugs" of the specially-prepared Aurora 4.0 liter V8 racing
engine have long ago been eliminated by virtue of the fact that is
almost the sole engine used in the Indy Racing League (IRL) Indy Car
series and has been for several years.

In the press information kit that we received from Cadillac, the
name of Herb Fishel appears as the director of GM Motorsports and it's
that august organization that was responsible for the development of the
basic IRL Indy Car engine that's been so successful.

Riley & Scott aren't newcomers to the ranks of endurance car
builders. In the recent Sports Car Club of America-sanctioned Rolex 24
hour race at Daytona, a Riley & Scott machine took the checkered flag
in first place ahead of three factory-prepared 333 SP Ferraris and a
second Riley & Scott placed fifth. Several other Riley & Scott cars were
entered and most of them were Ford powered as was the winning machine.

If this sudden interest by the usually sedate Cadillac in
establishing a performance image is surprising, it may have something to
do with the fact that its rival, Mercedes-Benz, is in the racing game in
a big way. M-B not only builds luxury cars that are in direct
competition with Cadillac, but it builds two-seater sports cars (its SLK
series) for public consumption. It is also an all-conquering presence in
the world arena of sports car endurance racing with its team of
purpose-built SLK-LMs as well as being the producer of the V10 engine
that powers the international Formula One champion McLaren. If Cadillac
is going to take on Mercedes-Benz on the world market, it pretty well
has to get into the racing business and do it soon.

In the early days of the 24 Hours of Le Mans just after World War
II, the race was only open to off-the-showroom-floor stock cars that had
to have four seats and if they were touring cars, their cloth tops had
to be up. When Briggs Cunningham ran his Cadillacs in 1950, his
stock-bodied entry placed 11th and beat the one that he had rebodied for
improved aerodynamics. Those days of running production cars in big-time
professional races are gone forever, but it would sure be nice to have
the Cadillac name up in the top ten of that famous French race once
more.